Development of a Critical Appraisal Tool (AIMRDA) for the Peer-Review of Studies Assessing the Anticancer Activity of Natural Products: A Step towards Reproducibility

Document Type : Research Articles

Authors

1 Department of Natural Products and Alternative Medicine, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O Box # 1982, Dammam 31441, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

2 Department of Pharmacy, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal Dir Upper Khyber Pakhtun Khwa, Pakistan.

3 Department of Pathology, Dow International Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, Pakistan.

4 Translational Research Institute, Academic Health System, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.

5 Cancer Research Department, Sidra Medicine, Doha, Qatar.

6 King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

7 King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

8 Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

9 Medical Oncology and Clinical Research, Cancer Institute (WIA), Chennai, India.

10 Department of Pathology, Era’s Lucknow Medical College & Hospital, India.

11 Biotechnology Research Institute (GEBRI)-SRAT-city, Egypt.

12 Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

13 Department of Histology and Cell Biology. Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

14 Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt, Egypt.

15 Shahrood University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

16 School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangzhou Medical University.

17 Cancer Research centre, Cancer Institute, Tehran university of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

18 Department of Social Medicine, Medical School, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The journal of APJCP (Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention) focuses to gather relevant and up-to-date novel information’s related to cancer sciences. The research methodologies and approaches adopted by the researcher are prone to variation which may be desirable in the context of novel scientific findings however, the reproducibility for these studies needs to be unified and assured. The reproducibility issues are highly concerned when preclinical studies are reported in cancer, for natural products in particular. The natural products and medicinal plants are prone to a wide variation in terms of phytochemistry and phyto-pharmacology, ultimately affecting the end results for cancer studies. Hence the need for specific guidelines to adopt a best-practice in cancer research are utmost essential. The current AIMRDA guidelines aims to develop a consensus-based tool in order to enhance the quality and assure the reproducibility of studies reporting natural products in cancer prevention. A core working committee of the experts developed an initial draft for the guidelines where more focus was kept for the inclusion of specific items not covered in previous published tools. The initial draft was peer-reviewed, experts-views provided, and improved by a scientific committee comprising of field research experts, editorial experts of different journals, and academics working in different organization worldwide. The feedback from continuous online meetings, mail communications, and webinars resulted a final draft in the shape of a checklist tool, covering the best practices related to the field of natural products research in cancer prevention and treatment. It is mandatory for the authors to read and follow the AIMRDA tool, and be aware of the good-practices to be followed in cancer research prior to any submission to APJCP. Though the tool is developed based on experts in the field, it needs to be further updated and validated in practice via implementation in the field.

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